Jason Reid’s guide to London’s best Sunday night cabaret haunts!
For as long as we can remember, Sundays have been the biggest day of the week in drag cabaret. Some people go to church, some go to a garden centre (groans), but we prefer to worship at the altar of the lace fronts.
This week, Jason Reid runs down his Sunday best….
Halfway to Heaven
Drag duo Crystal D’Canter and Kelly Mild have been taking to the stage for CK Sunday, at this popular gay cabaret venue, for almost ten years. The atmosphere is high-spirited and there’s a family style feel to this weekly event, which is welcoming to everyone. It’s pure unadulterated fun and camp and the girls have a unique onstage rapport that is born out of true friendship and mutual respect. The show usually gets going around 4pm and continues right through until early evening. Expect pop, country, musicals, ballads, special guests… and a skittlebomb or twelve.
Molly Moggs
A diminutive and long-established Soho pub that offers a welcome break from the ever increasing wave of mind-numbing blandness that has started to occupy the area. Sadly Molly Moggs has been going through a turbulent time of late, having been closed down in March of this year only to open a month later under new management. Who knows what the future may hold? There’s murmurs on the grapevine that it may be turned into a cocktail bar (please god, not another one). Cabaret coordinator Dave Bunce and the whole team are doing their utmost to make sure the drag shows stay, thankfully. Sundays are a double-show day with sing-alongs and innuendo-laden humour served up by Tiffaney Wells and Little Cosmic from 4pm right through until 10.30. A Soho GEM!
RVT
The palladium of drag that played host to Lily Savage and Adrella in the 80s and 90s continues that high standard of show today. Their Sunday Social event is headlined by The D.E Experience, Charlie Hides, Myra DuBois, and the newest addition to the line-up, Mary Mac (who has been going down a storm). Sunday drag cabaret shows don’t get much bigger than this. Showtime is 5.30 but the doors are swung open at 3pm so there’s plenty of time to whet your whistle before Myra is unleashed on you. And there’s a club night straight after with Londons top DJs playing until midnight.
Phoenix Artists Club
Sweet and innocent Scottish songbird Vanity von Glow perches herself behind the piano every Sunday evening (8.30pm) for A Night in Soho. Expect big ballads, musical theatre, stunning vocals and arrangements, and definitely a wee bit of Celine and/or Delta. In the space of a few years Vanity and the team have turned this vacant night into one of the Sunday big-players, and a perfect way to wind down at the end of the weekend in the heart of the West End.
Two Brewers
Power of Three is the Two Brewers’ flagship drag event, with back-to back shows from some of the finest entertainers in the business, including Miss Jason, Mary Mac and the whore of Hampstead Heath, Sandra. The vibe is lively, super-fun and it’s always busy with throngs of party-goers squeezing every last drop out of the weekend before the dreaded return to the office on Monday morning. An award-winning venue with a passion for drag.
And…
Admiral Duncan, Soho
Queen of the battered sausage and Drag Idol winner Baga Chipz, from 8pm.
Her Upstairs, Camden
A divine venue and a divine artist, Virgin Xtravaganzah’s Sunday Mass, from 8.30pm.
The Old Ship, Limehouse
Every week there’s a different show from a different drag artist at this gorge east London boozer (9.30pm) which is frequented by Sir Ian McKellen no less.
KU Bar, Chinatown
Everyone’s got the drag bug now, even twink bars (joke, dears)! Jacqui Swallows in the basement with guests, from 7.30.
